The present invention relates generally to the manufacture and use of electron beam and/or ion beam devices built into the end of a SPM cantilever or tip shaft for measuring, testing, inspecting, examining, modifying, analyzing objects in industrial, semiconductor, chemical, biological and scientific applications.
Manufacturing and other processes pertaining to scanning probe microscopy, nanomachining, micromachining, machining, optics, biotechnology, and biomedicine benefit from electron and/or ion beam imaging and modification but are not well served by speed, sample preparation, cost and destructive nature of present day electron beam, ion beam, and dual ion and electron beam systems. Especially in the biological world and increasingly in the semiconductor world high beam energies required for classical e-beam or ion beam systems are injurious or deadly to the subject, inspection requirements or production material under there influence.